RAMESES Misanthropic Alchemy (Feto) cd 14.98

MPEG Stream: "Ramesses Part 3"
MPEG Stream: "Lords Misrule"

RAMESES III Basilica (Important Records) 2cd 14.98
More pastoral beauty from this UK outfit, two discs this time, one of originals, record live and in rehearsal, the other discs, remixes and reinterpretations by Robert Horton, Keith Berry, Gregg Kowalsky and Neil Campbell.
The originals disc is maybe the breeziest and airiest to date, guitars are wreathed in reverb, releasing glimmering notes like blowing the white fluff off dandelions, the notes swirling and drifting, hovering over smooth glassy landscapes of warm whir, smeared synth buzz, minimal muted melodies, warm fuzzy pop ambient style drifts, like some free folk band covering The Orb, lilting free folk, the musical equivalent of dewy grass, autumn leaves falling through from a grey sky, sun dappled hillsides, soft slow shifting clouds, the day's first light, the sun making the moist grass sparkle like diamonds, viewing everything through a frosty pane of glass, rendering everything blurred and dreamily indistinct.
Well worth the price of admission for that disc alone, but there's a whole 'nother record, four long tracks, each of the above mentioned artists re-envisioning the originals. Robert Horton begins with a sprinkle of angelic high end, before bringing in the lows, a series of warm overlapping tones, barely shifting, all intertwined, into one slow organic swell, a near static melody unwinding in slow motion, over the course of nearly 8 minutes. Keith Berry's take is much more gritty, a gentle whirl of fuzzy streaks, muted into dreamlike murmurs, floating within a delicate landscape of glacial lowend and buried melody. Gregg Kowalsky turns his Rameses III source material into something jubilant and majestic, a sort of softened Sunroof!, all bells and chimes and bell-like tones, a glorious cacophony transformed into something less noisy and chaotic and more dense and layered, almost like the sound of a thousand orchestras tuning up stretched into some strange sunlit raga. And finally, Astral Social Clubber Neil Campbell stretches out Rameses III into some blissed out spacedrone, rife with distorted guitars, long drones, high end squalls of feedback, druggy effects, all slithering and squirming just below the surface, a surface which is a seemingly endless Niblock-like drone, the notes and layers beating against one another creating all sorts of subtle rhythms and strange harmonies, simultaneously static and in motion, a roiling writhing inner space ritual.
MPEG Stream: "Basilica (Keith Berry Remix)"
MPEG Stream: "Tigers In The Snake Pit (Neil Campbell Remix)"

RAMESES III Folk Hymns (Firefly Recordings) cd 9.98
An archival release from UK bliss folk drone combo Rameses III, released way back in, well, a long time ago, apparently long before the band started experimenting with tripped out production and field recordings, hazy washes of distortion and delay, and long sprawling dronescapes. Just like the title suggests, these are indeed Folk Hymns, very intimate and hushed, whispery and stripped down, often just acoustic guitar and voice. Plaintive and melancholy, the guitars lazy and sun dappled, the melodies relaxed and gentle, the vocals a bit raspy, definitely world weary, some of the songs are embellished with bits of extra guitar, slide, super subtle atmospherics, distant buzz and the like, but for the most part this is a gorgeously minimal modern folk record. Rameses III fans should still dig, but folks into stuff like Palace, Bonnie Prince Billy, Iron And Wine, Appendix Out, Songs:Ohia, Supreme Dicks, Alasdair Roberts, Sufjan Stevens and the like should definitely check out. Might be a gateway record to trippier and blissier things. We can hope...
We only got a handful of these direct from the band, so no telling how long this will be around.
MPEG Stream: "Where The River Flows"
MPEG Stream: "Leave It All Behind"

RAMESES III Honey Rose (Important) cd 9.98
Such pastoral bliss is on display within the cozy confines of this ep by the UK's Rameses III. One of the prettier discs we've heard all year, these mostly instrumental tracks (there is some hushed vocals on a couple songs) glisten with glimmering guitar ambiance that had us thinking of a slightly twangier Robin Guthrie or Durruti Column or even the wonderful instrumental guitar albums of Tom Verlaine. Timeless and mellow like a late summer sunrise. Makes so much sense that this was music recorded for a film, as it's so easy to close your eyes and visualize wide open landscapes of long winding roads, huge blue skies and fields of shimmering wet green grass. So so nice...
MPEG Stream: "Theme 1"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 2"
MPEG Stream: "Theme 3"

RAMESES III Jozepha (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
You know something is fishy when limited cd-r's start getting reissued as... LIMITED CD-R'S!!! What the heck?! Once makes sense, nothing wrong with a limited cd-r, but reissuing an out of print cd-r on cd-r AGAIN just makes us wonder why the heck it wasn't a real cd in the first place. Especially if it's so good that it requires multiple reissues. That said, at least we can be thankful that this gorgeous gem is still available at all. Originally released in 2004 on Campbell Kneale's Celebrate Psi Phenomenon label Jozepha is a practically perfect suite of songs, glistening and delicate, sweet and melancholy, steel string acoustic guitars, simple slide, even some subtle harmonica, lovely melodies drifting and intertwining, meandering lazily, soft sunlight filtered through the leaves and branches overhead, a cool breeze. A little bit country, a little bit pop, but mostly a totally timeless, dreamy instrumental journey with no particular destination, just floating along like big soft clouds, warm chords swirling like autumn leaves, simple melodies, dropping one note at a time, like raindrops on a sunny day. Quite possibly the sweetest, dreamiest, driftiest, swooniest record we've heard in ages. And frustratingly, this is again EXTREMELY LIMITED. Comes packaged quite smartly in an exquisitely embroidered sleeve!
MPEG Stream: "For Elsie (Cherry Blossom Falls)"
MPEG Stream: "The Silent Union Goes To War"

RAMESES III Matanuska (Music Fellowship) cd 15.98
BACK IN STOCK!!
First proper actual cd full length from this blissy UK free folk crew, after a clutch of (now out of print) cd-r's and a collaborative disc with the North Sea. Matanuska begins as a gloriously blissful late afternoon, sunshiney slab of fuzzy, buzzy, muted pop ambience, sparkling and glimmering, there are guitars, but they aren't plucked or strummed so much as spread like a thick glaze over the speakers. Within this gorgeous sun dappled soundfield, are tangled up bits of found sounds, distant ringing bells, rumbling thunder, as well as subtle layers of drone and shimmer adding mystery and depth to each track.
The rest of the record however is not so sunshiney, the mood is much more dark and shadowy, lit by moonlight, rumbles and whirs swirled into lush late night crawls, acoustic guitars draped over slow serene swells of sound, the buzz of steel strings muted and drawn out into simple shimmering ragas, the vibe is definitely sorrowful, melancholy, with minor key melodies drifting through intricate webs of abstract Appalachia, wheezing layered drones spread out like a late afternoon fog, amidst chirping birds and distant bits of conversation, a slowly shifting bit of minimal dreamdrone that brightens subtly as it works its way though the disc.
The record finishes up with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, like that glorious first day of Spring, the birds once again singing, the shimmering sounds soaking up the sunlight, a drifting drone, warm and glowing, a hopeful dreamy sound that blossoms like a flower after a rainstorm, the hushed buzz growing fuzzier and fuzzier, almost like a fading memory. So nice.
MPEG Stream: "Before The Rains Fall (For Ed Cooke)"
MPEG Stream: "The Great Campaigner"

RAMESES III Parsimonia (Barl Fire) cd-r 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
As frustrating as superlimited cd-r's can be, you really can complain when faced with music this dark and mysteriously lovely. You can wish that someone would have the foresight to know when a record was amazing, and thus might press more than 130 copies, but again, we're happy that 130 more people get a chance to hear this record. The UK three piece known as Rameses III have been quietly laboring away for 5 or 6 years now, having released cd-r's on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon, 267 Lattajjaa and handful of others. Their sound is hushed, a whispery drone, disembodied guitars, the sounds of running water and bird calls, bowed strings, shimmering ambience, a slow melodic churn through dark mysteries and warm soft soundscapes. Parsimonia was originally released on Foxy Digitalis way back in 2004, this reissue adds some spiffy new artwork and like we said, gives 130 more people the chance to enjoy some gorgeous late night drone and shimmer. Which actually means 30 AQ customers as this is frustratingly already out of print and we took all the copies the label had left. The sound on Parsominia is just more of what we've come to love about Rameses III, soft subtle soundscapes cobbled together from natural sounds and delicately crafted drones, never better exemplified than on the title track, a nearly 12 minute track of warm melodic swells, broadcast across a spring meadow, birds chirp, families laugh and talk, the wind rustles the leaves, all the while a huge shimmery cloud of muted rumble and soft focused sonic swirl drifts dreamlike through the trees. The rest of Parsimonia is equally drifty and dreamy, incorporating chiming bells, gentle finger picked steel string guitar and mumbly murky feedback into sweet sweet swells of mystical and transcendental sound.
LIMITED TO 130 COPIES, OF WHICH WE GOT 30. IT'S ALREADY OUT OF PRINT SO ONCE THESE ARE GONE THEY ARE GONE FOR GOOD (or until some other cd-r label decides to press up 100 more, arghh!)
MPEG Stream: "When The Bomb Drops, Hold Me Close"
MPEG Stream: "Three Ghosts (U.F.O.)"

RAMESSES The Tomb (Invada) cd 15.98

RAMESSES We Will Lead You To The Glorious Times (This Dark Reign) cd 14.98

RAMLEH Too Many Miles (Dirtier Promotions) cd 19.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Much has been written here about the recent work of Matthew Bower and his beautiful improv skree in Sunroof (paralleling the massive proliferation of likeminded acts Vibracathedral Orchestra and Birchville Cat Motel); but people often overlook the fact that he began making music in the early '80s as a part of the "Broken Flag" camp - a loose collective of British power electronics technicians and noise rockers, that recorded under the monikers Skullflower, Total, and Ramleh. While Bower was principally the 'figurehead' of the first two and fellow Broken Flag waver Gary Mundy took hold of Ramleh, most of the recording was done with a revolving door membership. Between Skullflower and Ramleh, the Broken Flag camp had produced a noxious arsenal of sludgy noise rock with grim guitar pyrotechnics, crashing upon pummelling rhythm sections, village-idiot basslines and thuggish percussive blasts. These days, the awe-inspiring Skullflower albums "Form Destroyer" and "Birthdeath" are virtually extinct (even, the CD compendium "Ruins" is impossible to find); but fortunately, the old Ramleh stuff is finally available again via this collection of singles. Hopefully this will help keep Broken Flag from dissappearing in the dustbins of musical history.
The formulas for Ramleh (and Skullflower for that matter) were incredibly simple: hammer out a basic rhythm as heavy and as loud as possible, then layer on the angriest and most dissonant blasts of post-Blue Cheer psychedelic freaks outs. Throughout the '80s, Ramleh and Skullflower were pigeonholed as a part of Industrial Culture -- due to their power electronics side projects and associations with Whitehouse; yet as "Too Many Miles" now indicates, this work has much more parallels with the explosive dirges of Neurosis or the incendiary stoner rock of Boris. Really fantastic stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Eightball Corner Pocket"
RealAudio clip: "Welcome"
RealAudio clip: "Black Moby Dick"

RAMMELLZEE Bi-Conicals Of The Rammellzee (Gomma) cd 15.98
Some of you may remember the Rammellzee track from the recent Anti NY compilation where he teamed up with NY legends Death Komet Krew. A dark and creepy slice of hip hop weirdness. And some of you may even remember the classic track "Beat Bop" recorded with Jean Michael Basquiat and K-Rob. One of the all time old school classics. Rammellzee was a serious player in the NYC B-boy / hip hop / graffiti scene. He was featured in the movie Wildstyle, worked with tons of folks (Fab 5 Freddie, Futura 2000, Phase 2 and more) and was one of the first graffiti artists to be taken seriously by the art world. But beyond his legendary status and past accomplishments, this is some really, really weird shit. Existing in his own universe, Gothic Futurism, along with life size muppets made out of trash, fur, junk and computers, and of course there's his futuristic skateboards, Rammellzee has taken his shit to the next level. Raw and wacked out, electo beats collide with classic hip hop, instantly recognizable samples are twisted into new shapes, found sound snippets are collaged with all sorts of squelches and drones and whirs, while Rammellzee delives his damaged demented lyrical flow in a gruff cookie monster / Oscar the Grouch growl, that occasionally morphs into an Anticon style whine. This craziness may sound classic, but it was all recorded over the last few years with help from the Death Komet Krew and a handful of likeminded hip-hop weirdos. So weird and so amazing. Everyone into Mush and Anticon and all that stuff needs to check this stuff out. My favorite new (old) hip hop record this year!
MPEG Stream: "Do We Have To Show A Resume?"
MPEG Stream: "The Rammellzee Vs. K-Rob: Beat Bop Part 2"
MPEG Stream: "Cheesy Lipstick"

RAMMELLZEE Bi-Conicals Of The Rammellzee (Gomma) 2lp 17.98
NOW AVAILABLE ON VINYL!!! Some of you may remember the Rammellzee track from the recent Anti NY compilation where he teamed up with NY legends Death Komet Krew. A dark and creepy slice of hip hop weirdness. And some of you may even remember the classic track "Beat Bop" recorded with Jean Michael Basquiat and K-Rob. One of the all time old school classics. Rammellzee was a serious player in the NYC B-boy / hip hop / graffiti scene. He was featured in the movie Wildstyle, worked with tons of folks (Fab 5 Freddie, Futura 2000, Phase 2 and more) and was one of the first graffiti artists to be taken seriously by the art world. But beyond his legendary status and past accomplishments, this is some really, really weird shit. Existing in his own universe, Gothic Futurism, along with life size muppets made out of trash, fur, junk and computers, and of course there's his futuristic skateboards, Rammellzee has taken his shit to the next level. Raw and wacked out, electo beats collide with classic hip hop, instantly recognizable samples are twisted into new shapes, found sound snippets are collaged with all sorts of squelches and drones and whirs, while Rammellzee delives his damaged demented lyrical flow in a gruff cookie monster / Oscar the Grouch growl, that occasionally morphs into an Anticon style whine. This craziness may sound classic, but it was all recorded over the last few years with help from the Death Komet Krew and a handful of likeminded hip-hop weirdos. So weird and so amazing. Everyone into Mush and Anticon and all that stuff needs to check this stuff out. My favorite new (old) hip hop record this year!
MPEG Stream: "Do We Have To Show A Resume?"
MPEG Stream: "The Rammellzee Vs. K-Rob: Beat Bop Part 2"
MPEG Stream: "Cheesy Lipstick"

RAMMER Cancer (Blue Fog) cd 14.98
If you crank Rammer's oh-so-positively named 2nd full-length album (and the cd booklet specifically recommends that listeners "fucking crank it"), you'll hear some maniac shouting himself raw on such subjects as butchers, Russia, and radiation, above a metallic din of amps to 11 and drumming to 12. If you know what's what, you'll quickly suss out that these Canadian hessians are young guns with old school obsessions. The collection of '80s thrash metal cassettes used as a background graphic in the cd booklet is another tip off. Throw in influences from death metal and metalcore, and a steady liquid diet of Molsons, and you've got a headbanging force to be reckoned with, Toronto's Rammer definitely having graduated with honors from the votech program for raging retro metalology at that aforementioned old school. Likely classmates of theirs would include Skeletonwitch, Goathorn, Boulder, Defleshed, and Early Man, all of these bands having taken classes from teachers like Slayer, Destruction, and Nuclear Assault. Thus these 11 songs are fully strapped with vicious chugging riffage, sore-throat vox, intense drum battery and (their forte) ripping guitar solos from Rammer's two axe-meisters. Simple pleasures perhaps, but nothing to scoff at if you're metallically inclined! Weirdly, this band has got some sort of indie-cred (Blue Fog ain't a metal label) but don't worry, this isn't ironic hipster metal (unlike, perhaps, at least one of the bands mentioned above, no not Slayer). Or if it is, the "real metallers" might as well pack it in, they've been outclassed by supposed poseurs!!
But no band of poseurs could be so metal as to follow in the glorious tradition of writing a song with the same name as the band ("Rammer") AND making it be about some sort of totally rad, ravening murderous monster, another glorious tradition...
MPEG Stream: "Dataslut"
MPEG Stream: "Rammer"

RAMMER Suffer (Funeral Gig) cd 9.98

RAMMER / S.T.R.E.E.T.S. Split (Global Symphonic) 7" 5.98
Another candidate for best band name ever: S.T.R.E.E.T.S. which in case you didn't know, stands for Skating Totally Rules Everything Else Totally Sucks! Man. And then team those guys up with the also suitably named Rammer, and you've got a pretty decent all-Canadian skate rock vs. cock rock tag team battle! In a cool, nicely designed lime green sleeve.

RAMMSTEIN Mutter (Republic) cd 15.98
No we're not kidding -- we love Rammstein! Here's the new album from these scary German industrial/metal dudes. Fire! Fire! It's surprising that they're as popular in this country as they are, considering that they sing in German. But I guess their theatrics and heavier-than-nu-metal are a universal language... Ridiculous but great.
RealAudio clip: "Feuer Frei!"

RAMMSTEIN Reise, Reise (Universal) cd 15.98
How can you not love Rammstein? Huge metallic riffs. Pounding thunderous Teutonic rhythms. Uber-grandiose fist pumping anthems. Crystal clear perfect production. And let's not forget the live spectacle of flames and explosions and fireworks (and of course the infamous flame-throwing codpiece). They are the perfect blend of orchestral black metal bombast a la Cradle Of Filth / Dimmu Borgir and Laibach style Wagnerian industrial pomp. Plus when they lock into a groove, they sound strangely like Finnish hypno-rockers Circle. Which is ALWAYS a good thing. This is probably the best Rammstein record yet. The songs are heavy and catchy and weird and really really good. All of the above sonic elements are in full effect, with lots of that Circle-ish mesmer we can't get enough of, as well as a couple standout tracks, a really biting anti-America song that is sung in English, with lyrics that reference the Wonderbra (!) and Coca-Cola and explain that "This is not a love song, I don't sing my mother tongue", a track sung partially in Russian, as well as a really amazing track with killer female vocal counterpoint. Plus strings, a choir, a full orchestra, and of course vocalist Till Lindemann's instantly recognizable, totally menacing, low low low growl. So good. Another band who if you can get beyond the endless 'hype' and media bullshit, will totally and completely kick your ass.
MPEG Stream: "Reise, Reise"
MPEG Stream: "Los"

RAMONE, JOEY Don't Worry About Me (Sanctuary) cd 17.98
We're all very sad that Joey Ramone died. But we're also sort of sad that this is the record that was left for us to remember him by. This whole package pulls shamelessly on the ol' heartstrings, the title "Don't Worry About Me", and the timing -- released while our wounds are still fresh -- and then to add insult to injury the record just kind of sucks. It's so clean sounding, you just can't compare it to the Ramones cuz it's on a whole different planet. It's poppy and goofy, but without the charm that made the Ramones special. A lot of people seem to like it, the reviews so far have all been positive, but I think maybe people are a bit hesitant to slam the record all things considered. Do yourself a favor and throw on your old beat up copy of 'Rocket To Russia' and toast to Joey and make up your own appropriate tribute.
RealAudio clip: "Don't Worry About Me"
RealAudio clip: "Mr. Punchy"
RealAudio clip: "What A Wonderful World "

RAMONES End Of The Century, The Story Of The Ramones (Rhino) dvd 23.00
Tommy, Johnny, Joey, Dee Dee, and Marky. They lived to see themselves reach iconic status. Yet, through intense inter-personal strife impacted by the eclipsing success of the musical acts that followed in their footsteps, these guys seem to have barely enjoyed anything at all. This incredibly well-made rockumentary tells the story of four kids from Forest Hills, Queens who bonded over a mutual admiration of The Stooges and found a way out of their shitty home and school-life by playing music together. It follows their early career in the 70's as The Ramones, playing gnarly Bowery-bum ridden CBGB's alongside other new acts like Television, Talking Heads and Blondie to touring through Europe and Latin America with huge sold-out gigs. Success seemed to shine on them overseas solely, while in small shitty clubs across the US, they were boo'd, jeered, laughed at or the subject of thrown bottles and cans. Simultaneously, their record sales refused to escalate as they had hoped.
The Ramones were a musical force, however. Their songs were brutal, consice and earnest. Their sound was fast, fierce and fucking impenetrable - in the vein of garagey Americana pop punk. But God dammit, you already knew that! Well, you've probably forgotten how fucking GOOD they were. You'll see some pretty amazing live footage inside this over-two-hour film. Early live shows and incredibly endearing interviews with bandmembers (save Johnny) will regenerate anyone's adoration for these boys. Their story also emphasizes the emotions involved in being a Ramone. This is a tragic but important part of who they were. For instance, of the band's original personnel, Tommy (the only one to quit pretty early on), is the only one still alive.
Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy created an inspirational legacy and this documentation does its absolute best to communicate to us their lives' work. It will award you with an awesome fight on stage, a re-telling of their experience with producer Phil Spector, priceless moments of Dee Dee's "other musical exploration", and... aw, c'mon, did you really think I'd tell you any more? I will tell you this and none more: extra features include bonus interview footage and among other things, the Marky Ramone Drum Technique! All you drummers out there will appreciate that little nugget.
By far, End Of The Century, The Story of The Ramones is not only an important addition to any rock collection, it's absolutely informative and inspirational to any musician and/or music-lover. But hey ho this baby's Region 1.

RAMONES s/t (Warner Archives) cd 12.98
Awesome! Reissued in 2001, this cd features eight bonus tracks which include a bunch of demo versions for songs such as "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Judy Is A Punk", "I Don't Care" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"!

RAMONES Weird Tales Of The Ramones (Warner Bros. / Rhino) book+dvd+cd 73.00

RANALDO, LEE Amarillo Ramp (Starlight) cd 12.98
Sonic Youth guitarist's solo tribute to earthworks artist Robert Smithson. Here's what El Bobo at Revolver Distro has to say about it: "Sonic Youth's left-minded, and soft-spoken lead guitarist continues to wield a big stick with a new solo outing of the highest sonic magnitude. First off is the title track, a 34-minute live recording from 1994 with after-the-fact wave-shaping and spectral improvement by Rafael Toral, followed by an instrumental 'Anagrama' type frolic with bandmates Steve Shelley and Thurston Moore. Also included are a couple of soundtrack excerpts, one from Notebook, and the other from one of Leah Singer's mind-smudging flicks (originally on '91's Guitarrorists comp.), and a John Lennon cover featuring the late Epic Soundtracks. As always it's a brilliant ride."

RANALDO, LEE Countless Centuries Fled Into The Distance... (Table Of The Elements) 12" 17.98
Another in Table Of The Elements' new series of one sided etched 12"s. A series focusing on the electric guitar. Last time we had Oren Ambarchi, this time we have Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, who starts out his 12" sounding quite a bit like Sonic Youth in fact. Noisy crashing chords, chaotic and off kilter, over a super high pitched sonar like beep, weirdly hypnotic until it explodes into a full on psychedelic skreekout.
The second track begins with an amazing tripped out, warbly warped guitar groove, which gives way to a weird high end drone doused in fucked up effects, so woozy it almost makes you dizzy just listening, and reminds us a bit of a fucked up set of bagpipes.
The final track begins with an echo-y almost-industrial space-y surfy riff, that shifts suddenly in pitch, creating mysterious melodies, super haunting and hypnotic, but this track too soon gives way to a massive amp blowing, speaker melting chunk of freaked out Japanese style noise-psych. Whew.
Pressed on opaque swirled turquoise vinyl. One sided, the other side with a super bad ass etching by Savage Pencil, housed in a thick vinyl sleeve, and of course, as always LIMITED!

RANALDO, LEE Windows (Barooni) cd 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Hypnogogic and stratospheric guitar noise/drones from Sonic Youth's guitarist who generates some pretty outstanding sounds similar to the ending tracks on "Daydream Nation" and recites his dystopic pseudo-Beat poetry over top. Lee employs such luminaries as Thurston Moore, Michael Morley (Dead C, Gate), and Epic Soundtracks.

RANDALL OF NAZARETH s/t (Drag City) cd 14.98
Acoustic folky stuff from one of the dudes from Pearls And Brass.

RANDALL OF NAZARETH s/t (Drag City) lp 15.98
Acoustic folky stuff from one of the dudes from Pearls And Brass.

RANDOM s/t (Kyouei Ltd.) cd 22.00
Managed to get a handful more of these weird and wonderful records...
It had to happen. It probably already has happened actually, but we love the weird, and the random, and we figured you probably would too. This is a Japanese import, not sure exactly who the artist is, but it's 99 tracks, each a rich lustrous tone, some deep and bell like, some soft and sonorous, some high pitched like a sine wave. All you have to do is set your cd player on random and away we go. A soft, subtle ambient journey, that ends up sounding a bit like Morton Feldman's Rothko Chapel, only a bit though. It also sort of sounds like Tibetan bowls, or chiming bells, or soft ambient Japanese music (which I guess it is). Soft and lovely, and most importantly RANDOM. 99 seperate tones means the number of possible songs is an astronomical 9.33262154 x 10 to the 155th! And that's if you only let each tone play once... So even though the disc is actually only about 8 minutes long, set to shuffle it turns into 8 million billion trillion minutes! Or more!
Anyway, this seems to work best if you import the disc to iTunes, set to shuffle and with a decent crossfade, then just sit back and drift off, let the gorgeously soft and shimmery, sweet and serene ambience wash over you.
MPEG Stream: "One"

RANDOM INC Walking In Jerusalem (Mille Plateaux) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is ostensibly a walk through Jeruselem as recorded by Random Inc. (who was a member of Autopoeises) and then processed/altered/fucked with by himself and a handful of guests including Tim Hecker, Electric Birds, the Rip-Off Artist, Ultra-Red and more. The results are pretty fantastic. I've listened to almost nothing else for the last few nights. This falls somewhere between AQ faves Stefan Mathieu and Oval, sort of gritty, buzzy, and hypnotic dreamscapes, but much darker and more cinematic, partly because of the recorded snippets of life/people/music in Jerusalem, but also because of the musical choices made by the contributors. This is a really dreary, somber, hypnotic, droning affair, with lots of buzz and click and hum and skitter. And the artists gentle touch with the original sound sources results in some totally breathtaking moments. I haven't dug a record this much since Oval's Diskont. Great stuff.
RealAudio clip: "Random_Inc. Entering Jerusalem (Coming From the West)"
RealAudio clip: "Random_Inc. Meets Tim Hecker In Musrara"
RealAudio clip: "Random_Inc. Entering Jerusalem (Coming From the East)"
RealAudio clip: "Random_Inc. Meets Electric Birds In Mamillah"

RANDOM INC. Jerusalem (Ritornell) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Stephan Meissner is a mainstay of the Mille Plateaux clicks 'n cuts crew via his work in Autopoesies and his solo projects Random Industries and Random Inc. "Jerusalem" is his latest work, the resulti of four years of gathering and editting sound material, specifically related to the complex and often volatile relationship between Jews and Palestinians in Jerusalem. Meissner's meditation on this city's cultural make-up plays upon the geographic rhizomes of neighborhoods and holy sites, which clearly do not follow easily definable boundaries. The city's geography itself acknowleges an extraordinary history of the continuous influx and dispersion of numerous persecuted peoples. While Meissner's micro-sampling technique has the potential to recombine all of the musical elements of both Arabs and Jews into a homogeneous synthesis, he instead opts for a neo-historical approach, co-opting the 20th Century's narrative of that land which saw the power shift from Arabic to Israeli. The first half of the album steps into the empty space left behind by Muslimgauze in a digital appropriation of Arabic percussions, choral chant, and guitars within an electro-glitch setting, but slowly the timbres morph from the warmth of the Arabic to the melancholy of Klezmer with doleful passages for violin, accordion, and clarinet. Meissner keeps a dutiful distance in his recombinant history using only the glitch as his signature, which may rearrange the syntax of the appropriated musics but does not alter the historical narrative to which the musical elements refer.
RealAudio clip: "Untitled Track 20"
RealAudio clip: "Untitled Track 6"

RANDOM INDUSTRIES Selected Random Works (Ritornell) cd 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Random Industries is the work of Sebastian Meissner (ex-Autopoieses). For "Selected Random Works," Meissner has constructed 99 very short digitally sharp pieces - mostly of crystalline glitches and stochastic / erratic rhythms, but others have incidental melodies that inconsequentially pass through soap operas. As you can probably guess, the idea is to set your cd player to random and let the machine construct new patterns each time you hear it. There are some post-digital / post-structuralist ideas mentioned in the liner notes about creating non-linear space and the subversion of interactivity through indeterminancy... all fine ideas, but ones that can not possibly be found on this disc. First of all, the random function of the cd player will simply collate the 99 pieces into different patterns... not reconstruct the fluidity of time. A cd player is not a time machine, no matter how many drugs you take. Second, all of the 99 pieces have a very similar timbre (quite charming and glistening), making it impossible to not listen to it as mere fragments of a larger whole. Pay no attention to the theoretical silliness, as this is a fine collection of powerbook glitch fuckery.

RANDOMNUMBER I Understand Your Date and Time of Nowhere (Rocket Racer) cd 11.98
What do sandpaper and spraypaint bring to mind? Abrasiveness? Graffiti? Woodwork? Well, this is definitely not the case with Randomnumber. Those particular materials are what adorns this cd. Squares of sandpaper of varied grit are the insert and traycard. Gold dots and brown quadrangles are painted directly on the jewel case. Very pretty actually. As for the sounds contained within, it's Matt Roberts, drummer of Hood, doing the electronica thing. Sounding not unlike... Hood! Chimingly pleasant, if a bit forlorn, guitar plucking meanders around electronic tones. Skittery-scattery beats. There's an abundance of this sort of music around as of late, but if you haven't had your fill yet, this is actually quite nice. Also sounds a lot like the artists on the 555 or Fuzzybox labels.
RealAudio clip: "Connection Is Lost"

RANDY BARRACUDA Rick James is Dead/The High (Flogsta Danshall) 7" 6.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Skweee!!! See our Museum of Future Sound review for more explanation...

RANGLIN, ERNIE A Mod A Mod Ranglin (K&K Records) cd 11.98
If you love Jackie Mittoo, you'll most certainly love Ernest Ranglin as well. Ernie is the guitar equivalent to Mittoo's laid back keyboard stylings. Impeccably-produced instrumental guitar work, somewhere between Martin Denny style lounge and rock steady. Excellent!

RANKO, SLAVA Arctic Hysteria (Adolescent) lp 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"I do not want to play music which sounds as if it comes from familiar instruments, music which is based on chord patterns, or music which fits nicely within any particular stereotyped tradition... What I want is the terrifying, the menacing, the cruel, the chaotic, the darkly exciting, the ecstatic, the irrational -- music that resounds between the cells and in the intergalactic voids..." --Slava Ranko

RANNISTO, ANTTI Aaniesineita (12K) cd 14.98
Ah, Finland! You never cease to amaze us with the wealth of intruding sounds that emerge from your arctic landscape; and you've once again provided us with somebody new to get excited about. While our obsession with Finnish music has been typically centered on the liminal psychedelia of Circle, Kemiallyset Ystavat, Avarus, and all things Fonal, we've also been quite taken by the frigid electronica that Pan Sonic has been making for many years now. Antti Rannisto comes from the same mold as Pan Sonic's Mika Vainio in sculpting a compelling post-techno electric field of phase-shifting throbs and sine-wave tones with impeccable precision. In many ways, Aaniesineita mirrors what Vainio did on his solo records Metri and Tulkinta. There really is not very much to Rannisto's work, often just a hyper-repetitive 4/4 pulse with subtle shifts of panning, EQ envelope manipulation, and phase shifting of tonal elements. According to Rannisto, it's all about rotation. That pretty much says it all.
MPEG Stream: "Aaniesineita 3"
MPEG Stream: "Aaniesineita 6"

RAPE X False (At War With Noise) cd 14.98

RAPEMAN Two Nuns And A Pack Mule (Touch & Go) cd 14.98
Steve Albini, post-Big Black. A classic.

RAPOON :D-Lem: (Gracia-Territori Sonor) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
:D-Lem: is a documentation of the live performance Rapoon (aka Robin Storey) gave during the 1999 LFM Festival in Barcelona, and is the closest that he has come to sounding like :Zoviet France: since Storey left the anonymous collective. This dark looping hypnodrone with post-industrial clatter that could easily fit on :ZF:'s "Mohnomishce" or "Just An Illusion" (titles that highlight the best work from :ZF:, just so you know).

RAPOON :Just Say The Faith: (Soleilmoon) cd 14.98
Even though it's been a decade since Robin Storey left the seminal post-industrial ensemble :Zoviet*France:, he hasn't really extended himself beyond his last few outings with :Z*F: (including "Just An Illusion" and possibly "Shouting At The Ground"). In :Zoviet*France:, he mastered the technique of multitracking tape loops, often of murky recordings from non-specific ethnic percussion, and then splattering them with a profuse amount of dub delay to create very effective hypnotic drones. ":Just Say The Faith:" find his current project Rapoon softening the edges of all of the looping rhythms to give a less foreboding and dreamily celestial ambience to his sounds. Unfortunately, in lightening the mood, Rapoon verges on a soundtrack for commercials about soothing bath salts and exfoliating sugar scrubs, or for the next Peter Gabriel multi-media experience. Originally, this album was released as a vinyl only limited release, but now gets a CD-reissue with a few extra tracks.
RealAudio clip: "Fuck The Wire"

RAPOON Alien Glyph Mythology (Soleilmoon) 2x10" 53.00

RAPOON Fires of The Borderlands (Release) cd 14.98
Robin Storey, founding member of :Zoviet*France: and sole proprietor of Rapoon, finds the source material for his mesmeric drone music in the tones emaneted from tablas, Egyptian reeds, digeridoos, and a plethora of ethnic instruments. From the dots of sound he pulls from the instruments, Storey (like his predecent work in :Z*F:) builds lulling compositions with hypnotic rhythmic patterns and rich textures of drifting sound. "Fires of the Borderlands" is one of his most somnambulant pieces and is quite good.

RAPOON From Shadows Sleep (Essence Music) cd 16.98
While the Essence Music press release doesn't make this proclamation, any self-respecting :zoviet*france: fan will be able to recognize the source material for Rapoon's From Shadow Sleep. Essentially this album is a remix of the source material taken from two of the finest :zoviet*france: recordings of all times -- the diptych centerpiece of "Ascend The Fall" and "Caught In The Square" found on the album Just An Illusion. That 1990 :zoviet*france: album was essentially a solo record by Robin Storey, who later split from :zoviet*france: rather acrimoniously and formed Rapoon, a project whose work has been fairly hit or miss.
True to the old adage: when Rapoon has been good, he's been very very good; but when he's been bad, he's horrid. From Shadows Sleep find Storey in top form, partially because the source material is so exquisite -- back from when he was dealing with convoluted tape loop machines, time-lag accumulators, and the best non-Dub use of delay pedals of all time. These aerated sounds tinged with metallic resonance cobble together swelling masses of hypnotic drift, underscored by a brooding atmosphere. Sonorous pings and aggregates of swirling tape hiss spackle Rapoon's mighty drone which ends up being both unsettling and transcendent at the same time. Given how many are dabbling in the fine art of grizzled dronescaping, the back catalogue of :zoviet*france: should be required listening. But given that nearly all of those recordings of alchemical ritualism are out of print (thanks to that unfortunate acrimony mentioned above), this Rapoon album is the next best thing. Very highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "The Darkness Of Ages"
MPEG Stream: "The Pit Under The Castle"
MPEG Stream: "The Pigmen At The Window"

RAPOON From Shadows Sleep (Essence Music) cd / 3" cd / box 58.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
This is the super limited, ultra deluxe box set version, that includes tons of extra art and inserts as well as a bonus 3" cd-r)!! Most likely already out of print by the time you read this...
While the Essence Music press release doesn't make this proclamation, any self-respecting :zoviet*france: fan will be able to recognize the source material for Rapoon's From Shadow Sleep. Essentially this album is a remix of the source material taken from two of the finest :zoviet*france: recordings of all times -- the diptych centerpiece of "Ascend The Fall" and "Caught In The Square" found on the album Just An Illusion. That 1990 :zoviet*france: album was essentially a solo record by Robin Storey, who later split from :zoviet*france: rather acrimoniously and formed Rapoon, a project whose work has been fairly hit or miss.
True to the old adage: when Rapoon has been good, he's been very very good; but when he's been bad, he's horrid. From Shadows Sleep find Storey in top form, partially because the source material is so exquisite -- back from when he was dealing with convoluted tape loop machines, time-lag accumulators, and the best non-Dub use of delay pedals of all time. These aerated sounds tinged with metallic resonance cobble together swelling masses of hypnotic drift, underscored by a brooding atmosphere. Sonorous pings and aggregates of swirling tape hiss spackle Rapoon's mighty drone which ends up being both unsettling and transcendent at the same time. Given how many are dabbling in the fine art of grizzled dronescaping, the back catalogue of :zoviet*france: should be required listening. But given that nearly all of those recordings of alchemical ritualism are out of print (thanks to that unfortunate acrimony mentioned above), this Rapoon album is the next best thing. Very highly recommended.
MPEG Stream: "The Darkness Of Ages"
MPEG Stream: "The Pit Under The Castle"
MPEG Stream: "The Pigmen At The Window"

RAPOON Navigating By Colour (Soleilmoon) cd 19.98
The oversized beautiful first edition of Rapoon's "Navigating By Colour" features a dozen oversized postcards of Robin Storey's paintings (imagine Diebenkorn infused with a fictional tribal symbolism), but it's the sound which makes this album perhaps his best work since working with Zoviet France. Not nearly as tinted with pseudo-ethnic percussive elements as his other records, fragments of electronica (a particularly nice deconstruction of LTJ Bukem's archetypal "Amen" junglist break into something nothing not at all drum'n'bass-esque) and medieval chants join Storey's masterful useage of ever shifting dark passages of looping drones.

RAPOON What Do You Suppose? (Staalplaat) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
"What Do You Suppose?" is a conceptual departure from the curatorial duties of Rapoon's Robin Storey (ex-Zoviet France) whose previous releases have been anthropological collections of looping drones culled from fictional non-Western cultures. Sampling heavily from a symposium on the nature of alien lifeforms, Rapoon's previous ambiguity has been anchored heavily in conspiracy theory, but retains his musical expertise in delay happy percussive drones.

RAPTURE Futile (Spikefarm) cd 14.98
Yet another depressing and doomy export from our beloved Finland. Man, these people must be so miserable. How else could a single nation produce so much depressing music? This time around it's the Rapture, who musically, bear an uncanny resemblance to AQ favorites Katatonia. And for those of you unfamiliar with that sound, it's a bit like a metal Cure; dark and droning, melodic and hypnotic, but heavy! The Rapture take their obvious Katatonia influence, and rough it up, adding screaming, shrieking, growling black metal vocals, instead of the more melodic Katatonia croon. Really fucking great.

RAPTURE Songs For The Withering (Spikefarm) cd 14.98
Gloomy, gothy melodic metal from Finland's Rapture (not to be confused with NYC's The Rapture!), who are kind of a Katatonia clone band. Nothing wrong with that, though, you can't have too much doomy yet catchy Nordic misery wethinks. This is quite good. Compared to recent Katatonia, Rapture perhaps remain MORE "metal" (though both bands are quite heavy): Rapture's vocalist still does the RAWRRRAAHH death-metal growling thing along with some more melodic, clean singing, and you can hear some Metallica and In Flames in there along with that hypnotic Katatonia downer-groove and Cure vibe. (If, after reading this, you're wondering who the heck Katatonia are, please find their reviews on our website and check 'em out...once you've become a fan, come back for the Rapture cds!)
RealAudio clip: "Nameless"
RealAudio clip: "The Vast"

RAPTURE, THE Echoes (DFA / Mercury) cd 11.98
You probably don't need us telling you about The Rapture. But if you've been in hiding for the past few months, The Rapture's "Echoes" has been one of the most widely anticipated albums of the season. There has been an inordinant amount of hype surrounding this band and the DFA production team; and often that type of silliness doesn't really play that well here at Aquarius. So for us, the anticipation was out of a simple question which many other people have been asking as well: Is anything else on Echoes as good as that "House of Jealous Lovers" track? Honestly, no; but The Rapture trying to out-groove "House of Jealous Lovers" is like My Bloody Valentine trying to out-shoegaze "Soon." It's just not going to happen. And if that question is what you needed answered, we're happy to oblige.
However if you look beyond that obvious question, and beyond the ridiculous hype of 'New York's best new band' and actually listen to the record, you might be surprised at how good it is. That said, The Rapture will never escape its influences, in particular Entertainment by Gang of Four, Metal Box by Public Image Limited, early A Certain Ratio, and The Cure. Why anybody would want to ape Robert Smith's nasal whine is beyond me, but The Rapture's singer Luke Jenner has done just that. There's even a direct citation of The Cure's "One Hundred Years" found on The Rapture's "Olio," where Jenner yelps the phrase "Over and over and over again," just as Smith does. It's a little painful, but the DFA production of this remade Rapture track which appeared on their Gravity debut many moons back is a powderkeg post-punk groove laced with plenty of uptempo rhythms. It's certainly strong enough to transcend the vocals and comes close to the cocaine frenzy of "House of Jealous Lovers." As a whole Echoes succeeds through its dynamics, at times suffocating the band's sound in the pressure cooker of jagged guitar scratches, Jenner's voice, and heart-racing rhythms (i.e. "Killing"), at others releasing Jenner's voice as a ghastly diva amidst tubular bells and beatific Chicago house grooves (i.e. "I Need Your Love"), and at others donning the vastly different art rock poses of The Birthday Party and Radiohead (i.e. "Heaven" and "Open Up Your Heart" respectively).
The Rapture is a true amalgam of all things cool at the moment, and the cynic in me wants to call this bullshit for that exact reason; but it's just too good to receive that damnation from me!
MPEG Stream: "Olio"
MPEG Stream: "Killing"
MPEG Stream: "I Need Your Love"

RAPTURE, THE Echoes (DFA) lp 14.98
You probably don't need us telling you about The Rapture. But if you've been in hiding for the past few months, The Rapture's "Echoes" has been one of the most widely anticipated albums of the season. There has been an inordinant amount of hype surrounding this band and the DFA production team; and often that type of silliness doesn't really play that well here at Aquarius. So for us, the anticipation was out of a simple question which many other people have been asking as well: Is anything else on Echoes as good as that "House of Jealous Lovers" track? Honestly, no; but The Rapture trying to out-groove "House of Jealous Lovers" is like My Bloody Valentine trying to out-shoegaze "Soon." It's just not going to happen. And if that question is what you needed answered, we're happy to oblige.
However if you look beyond that obvious question, and beyond the ridiculous hype of 'New York's best new band' and actually listen to the record, you might be surprised at how good it is. That said, The Rapture will never escape its influences, in particular Entertainment by Gang of Four, Metal Box by Public Image Limited, early A Certain Ratio, and The Cure. Why anybody would want to ape Robert Smith's nasal whine is beyond me, but The Rapture's singer Luke Jenner has done just that. There's even a direct citation of The Cure's "One Hundred Years" found on The Rapture's "Olio," where Jenner yelps the phrase "Over and over and over again," just as Smith does. It's a little painful, but the DFA production of this remade Rapture track which appeared on their Gravity debut many moons back is a powderkeg post-punk groove laced with plenty of uptempo rhythms. It's certainly strong enough to transcend the vocals and comes close to the cocaine frenzy of "House of Jealous Lovers." As a whole Echoes succeeds through its dynamics, at times suffocating the band's sound in the pressure cooker of jagged guitar scratches, Jenner's voice, and heart-racing rhythms (i.e. "Killing"), at others releasing Jenner's voice as a ghastly diva amidst tubular bells and beatific Chicago house grooves (i.e. "I Need Your Love"), and at others donning the vastly different art rock poses of The Birthday Party and Radiohead (i.e. "Heaven" and "Open Up Your Heart" respectively).
The Rapture is a true amalgam of all things cool at the moment, and the cynic in me wants to call this bullshit for that exact reason; but it's just too good to receive that damnation from me!

RAPTURE, THE House of Jealous Lovers (DFA) 12" 7.98
This single has been making DJs of all stripes cream their pants since it was released earlier this year. "House of Jealous Lovers" (as well as its Morgan Geist remix version, also on this DFA 12") has been showing up at house nights, electro clubs, and post-punk DJ sets by hipster British video artists. It's the kind of song that is equally irrisitable to art punkers, San Francisco disco divas, discriminating indie kids and Brooklyn fashion victims. No, that's absolutely not a criticism-- it's an illustration of how, like their best funk-punk predecessors, the Rapture bridge the gap between rock and dance music undergrounds. Basically, this single kicks all kinds of asses all over the dance floor, whether it be located in a sweaty club or in your bedroom.